Followed the suggestions for PSP blurring to create a DOF in post-editing. I think it definitely looks better, but if I spent more time on it maybe it could be more manicured/cleaned up. Wanted to post this as a comparison to show how much difference it made - thanks for the suggestions.
Much better than the first. I think so additional feathering would have helped the line look not so apparent on the right side, but the rest looks really good. This is such a cute capture!