Simon,
Thank you for the tips...I think I was trying to do what you said, and ended up doing what I was familiar with (shallow depth of field stuff). I shouldn't have been afraid to stop down to F16, (I was on F5.6 I think) and crank down the shutter speed.
I was on a tripod, so a slower shutter would have been fine I think.
Next time I will go deeper depth of field, and frame without the out-of-focus brush. I do have a few shots without the distracting blur on the right side, but to my eye's when I edited the photo's, this one felt the best framed and it had the best light. Next time I will be sure it has the best depth of field too!
IB