Susan, Owbist is great, knowledgeable, and always helpful, so please don't take my response as disputing his obliging and useful advice to you. I have no doubt there is a memory issue that correcting will prove beneficial. What you describe sounds like an overloaded cache directory. This may also be referred to by some programs as the program's scratchpad (or whatever Photoshop Elements calls it). Any program that works with graphics (most programs, actually, whether they work with graphics or not, especially Word), utilizes this area for temporary storage used by your computer's memory. Everything you do in PE creates these temp files, which are an integral part of forming/creating/modifying while in the program. Just opening a graphic in PE prompts the program to automatically generate these cache/scratch/temp files to help it remember the graphic and everything you do to it (such as lightening, sharpening, applying effects, etc.). In other words, PE is creating and storing copies of the information it needs and makes easily retrievable while you task. It is one reason undo is possible, for example, but has many other uses. The program automatically created this area/directory on your hard drive during installation, and some programs build them more heavily and more rapidly than others. That would depend on the size of these files and how many it builds for each individual graphic. Some build only one, but some build quite a few. I have no idea how many PE creates or how big they are. Additionally, there are other temp files the program may be creating. Even though it's finished with those files and has discarded them to the cache/scratchpad directory or to your Temp directory in Windows, it still accesses them. Or, in the very least, they are sitting there in the way, interferring with the program's functionability (is that a word? LOL). This explains your sudden decrease in efficiency. Therefore, adding memory will certainly help but only for the length of time it takes the cached/scratched files to build beyond RAM's ability to manage - which is what actually just happened. Now, your task is finding its location so you can clean it out and be able to clean it periodically. I'm sorry I cannot help with that because I don't have PE. I do have Photoshop but couldn't find its scratch folder doing a quick look. Once you delete all the *junk* in there, PE will resume normal function at a maximum rate of tasking speed that your amount of memory will accommodate. As Owbist indicated, the more the merrier. :) Start another thread for someone with PE to help you find that folder. Incidentally, clean out your Temp directory. C > Windows > Temp Bet you find a bunch of stuff with a .tmp extension. You will likely find files with other extensions, but I wouldn't touch those. Good luck

Have you had a look with strong direct sunlight? Few people realize how radically the color of light changes in the course of the day: pink at dawn, blue at noon, golden at dusk. Our brains are actually wired to compensate for this, but the subtleties of color can still trick us, especially when the 'color of daylight' is even more exagerated by the weather or season. I hate it when color charts have disclaimers like 'actual shades will vary': why bother with the chart, then? If the company won't step up, I'd paint it. This is a pretty big issue to try to live with, especially when it's so easily addressed.

I have a lite version of PS but don't use it much. Prefer Paint Shop Pro, but most any photo edit with a Clone feature should do the trick. If my PSP works like PS, you probably have to have both your own home photo and then other pics of homes with stone on them all open in your software. Then play around with Clone setting. Here are google search results of tutorials using clone command in PS. Second one from top and second from bottom look fairly easy for starters. There are tons of tutorials out there, pretty sure clone is a universal command, so if you're not actually usually Photo Shop brand software, try googling the name of your software and put 'clone' after it.

Looking out my kitchen window is a stucco house similar to yours. If you were looking for the trim to be darker than the body then consider something opposite of what you currently have. The body of the home in the color of your trim and the trim in the body? Does that make sense? The house I am speaking of that I can see out my window has a bone color on the body and a darker tan on the trim. The trim color could be almost like Lindy's 15:43 house above,with a lighter body. ....OR I can crawl back under my rock :)