Picnik, Photoshop, Ad Swap, and more!

It looks like Picnik's site is closing in April 2012.  Sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news on that one.  This begs the question--what programs do y'all use for editing photos, creating banners, etc?  Clearly photoshop is the holy grail {cough I used to have an illegal copy cough}, but for someone like me, I find it a bit cumbersome.  I always seem to go wrong with the layers.  Not to mention the fact that it takes a full two minutes for the program to open.  Anyhow, anything better, cheaper, more user-friendly out there?

I read some good stuff about GIMP, so I'm gonna give that a try.

Which brings me to the reason I've been using said programs....I finally figured out how to create blogger buttons.  I know, late the party, eh.  Nevertheless, my excitement cannot be dampened!

So, if you want to swap buttons....let's talk :)

What do think?

In other news, we had a little potluck lunch after meditation today and talked about our experiences in India.  It was nice to relive some of the memories.  And it totally made me wish I was back there!  I have a blog post cooking that will highlight my India trip...get excited :)

Here's a little teaser....