In need of {PHOTOGRAPHY 101}

I've been bit by the photography bug for a long time now. Ever since I had professional photographers take pictures of my hair clips on their clients.{Here are just a few}

Good cameras are very expensive though so it took awhile before I could go from this Nikon Coolpix to the Nikon D3100:
TO THIS

I loved my Nikon CoolPix so I wanted to stay with Nikon when upgrading. I decided to get a Nikon 3100 because it had great reviews and it was in my price range. The pictures are very clear and the shutter speed is just right for my personal needs. There is so much I need to learn about photography, but the biggest part of photography is knowing how to edit pictures. I've always used picasa for editing and I've also used picnik, but I just recently purchased a downloaded version of photoshop, and my goodness their is SO much to learn. With time I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but until then I consider myself to be in the first week of Photography 101 so if you have any advice or sites I should visit please let me know.

{Here's a recent picture I took at the pumpkin patch with my Nikon D3100, edited in Picassa}