ByKeep your yard looking great for less.Woman's Day Staff

Curb Appeal
A manicured front lawn makes a good first impression on guests and can keep you in your neighbors' good graces. And thanks to these savvy tips, keeping your grounds green doesn't have to cost much green. Keep reading to discover how to start saving now. Photo by GettyImages.

Make Compost

Keep a lidded container on a kitchen counter to collect food scraps (fruit cores, veggie trimmings, coffee grounds, rinsed eggshells; anything but meat). Toss them into an out-of-sight pile or a compost bin (recommended in areas with foraging wildlife) on your property along with leafy prunings, excluding weeds. Turn the pile every couple of weeks to encourage decomposition, and within a season or two, you'll have a continual supply of nutrient-rich fertilizer.

COST Free; $100 and up for an enclosed composter
SAVINGS $15 per bag of fertilizer

Lose the Grass (By Choice)
Give over part of your lawn to ground cover, such as vinca, carex or ferns. These

Source: You Can't Eat Anything You Want: Nutrition Tips For Marathon Training

Deciding whether to run a marathon can be a journey in itself, but it's when you actually sign up for a race that the real planning starts. And while your training plan should be at the front of your mind, don't forget that what you eat during those months is equally as important, says running coach and nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald. While you may think that you can eat anything you want since you are burning so many calories during training, not paying attention to diet can cause you to feel more sluggish, have cramps, or show up at the start line above your ideal racing weight, Matt warns.

Matt's book The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition: A Cutting-Edge Plan to Fuel Your Body Beyond the Wall ($18) as well as his training and nutrition plans he developed with PEAR Sports are meant for runners who are trying to improve their race times or to just avoid hitting the wall during the race. We

Want to work on those six-pack abs in your own home or train for that 5k sans the cramped environment of a gym? Your smartphone may have all the capabilities to get you motivated and fit. We compiled a list of our eight favorite workout apps that will have you toned and feeling great in no time - all on your own terms.

#1: Map My Run

Map My Run

Whether you're just jogging for fun or training for a marathon, this is the perfect app for all types of runners, from those of us beginners to the more advanced bunch. Using GPS, you can track your distances, routes, splits, and overall progress. There's also a helpful voice that updates you with every mile increase.

#2: Daily Butt Workout

Daily Butt Workout

Hate doing butt exercises for the whole gym to see? This is the best way to tone your behind in the comfort of your own home.

#3: Daily Ab Workout

Daily Ab Workout

Get that same intense workout as if there was a trainer right next to you. Prop your phone up to watch the fitness model and start

In a weekend or less, transform your bathroom from standard to stunning with these easy and inspiring projects

1. Apply tiled backsplash to your bathroom counter
2. Build a wood-framed bathroom mirror shelf
3. Paint a striped bathroom floor

Paint your bathtub
4. Paint your bathtub
Materials
Rust-bonding primer (only if there's rust)
Shellac-based primer
Latex enamel, 1 quart
Tools
Drop cloths
Rubber gloves, bucket, and sponge-type scrub pad
Household cleaner, or deglosser if existing paint has a gloss finish
Painter's masking tape, 1 inch or wider
Synthetic-bristle brush, 1½ inch
Paint tray
Mini roller
Steps
1. Wash. You'll be painting only the exterior of the tub. Check that any existing exterior paint is intact and not flaking off. (If it is flaking, you'll need to have the tub stripped or sandblasted first so the new paint won't peel.) Position the drop cloths. Wearing gloves, wash the exterior of the tub with water and the cleaner. Clean as much of the

Springtime is picnic season!Now that the sun is out, I've been feeling a lot more motivated to come up with fun activities to do with my daughter and it's inspired me to do a recurring series called "Fun For Little Ones"! I'll be sharing fun activities and outings that are child-friendly on a regular basis and will make sure to include details (what to bring, tips to make it go more smoothly, etc…) to make it fun for everyone. Today's activity? A picnic in the park!

Here are some ideas for a fun picnic outing with your little ones:

1.Invite your friends
While a picnic with just your immediate family could be cool too, I have the mindset of "the more the merrier". We planned our outing with our friends and their kids as well, which made it more fun for the littles and more fun for the grown-ups too. BONUS: we could all take turns chasing each other's kids so we could actually eat some of the delicious food we brought!

2. Plan ahead
We coordinated with our friends to figure out what to bring

Serious little boy in the bathtub.

There are few places you will get more awkward questions from your small child than in the bathroom. How do you answer these crazy questions? Well, when you get finished blushing, laughing or fainting on floor, you've got to give them an answer that they can understand. Here are a few of the more awkward questions kids might ask in the bathroom, and some answers that my keep you from standing there tongue tied and wondering what to say.

What is poop?

This is an easy one! Poop is the leftover stuff that passes through our body after we get all the good nutrition we can from the food we eat. It is waste, and it has germs in it, so it's important that we wash our hands after we use the potty.

Where does the poop go when you flush?

Toilets fascinate kids. Actually, toilets kind of fascinate me, too. I'm so glad they work so well and do the job they do. To answer where the poop goes when you flush, explain that pressure and gravity help move it through pipes out of your house and

Videochatting is fun!We live quite far away from most of our family, including all of our children's grandparents. So we feel very lucky to live in an age where videochatting is possible. Our parents get to see our girls grow up and our girls know them as more than a tiny face on a photograph.

But it can be tricky to get a toddler to spend more than just a few minutes watching the computer or tablet screen, and helping them to interact with someone who isn't physically present can be a challenge.

Here are some tricks we've learned to help our toddler stay engaged with her grandparents on the other side of the camera (these would also work well if parents travel for work or live apart.

1. Preparation
One quick suggestion first: Try to get everything set up before you bring your child over. It's frustrating for very small children to wait twenty minutes while you get your camera working, figure out new software, or actually make the connection.

2. Show and Tell
Little children tend to love a captive

The next time you're looking for an arts escape, or a good burger, why not try a park? They're the cities' hippest hangouts
Digital Orca sculpture at Jack Poole Plaza

1. Art in open spaces: Jack Poole Plaza, Vancouver, B.C.
The surprise here is the life-size Digital Orca sculpture breaching vertically from the Jack Poole Plaza, a triangular slice on the waterfront. And no, the whale isn't fuzzy; it's pixelated into Lego-like blocks. Also on the plaza is the Olympic cauldron--where the flame burned during the 2010 Winter Games--now on display permanently. North end of Thurlow St.; 866/785-8232.

2. Lessons in gardening: Hayes Valley Farm, San Francisco, CA
Plunked down on what used to be a freeway off-ramp, Hayes Valley Farm is the urban equivalent of the back-to-the-earth experience you used to have to drive to. Just a block from a strip of boutiques, city farmers are growing kale, snap peas, and beets. Drop by to learn composting or take a yoga class. Free yoga; soil classes from $25; 450 Laguna St.;