Review by Laura Cameron
A few months ago we were approached by kind folks over at Saint Belford asking if we’d like to take a look at their Curation 2019 Diary ($59.95 AUD). Saint Belford is an Australian company :
We are Tom and Alex and our mission is to provide you with the tools that empower you to keep self-care at the top of your to-do list, so that you can design, build and live a life that genuinely fulfills you, without compromising your wellbeing in the process.
The Curation 2019 Diary is more than just a planner, but is meant to be a book to help you:
…take charge of your life, live mindfully and become the best, most vibrant version of yourself.
The Curation 2019 Diary measures 6.25″ x 8.5″ (16cm x 21.5cm) and weighs approximately 1lb, 4oz. (520g) It comes in three colorways: Cherry Blossom, Midnight Blue and Signature Black. I chose Cherry Blossom for my review. The hard covered volume has a slightly textured faux leather cover and is embossed with gold foil, giving it a minimalist and elegant look.
The inside front cover pages are plain white and there are two ribbons, one pink and one grey, which coordinate nicely with the diary. (I assume that in other editions the ribbons coordinate as well.)
The first real page is a nice introduction to the volume, written by Alex, the curator of the diary.
Following the introduction, there are a series of inspirational pages about various aspects of your life. First is the “Self-Care Menu” encouraging you to write down activities, rituals and resources to nourish your mind, body and soul.
Next is a Bucket List – adventures and experiences you’d like to undertake in 2019.
Other sections include Mission pages (defining your mission, setting specific actionable steps to achieve your mission and milestones along the way), a Habit Curator (allowing you to work on habits you’d like to build or curtail), and a Savings Curator (allowing you to track income and expenses and set savings goals for the year). Peppered throughout the pages are motivational quotes to inspire you.
Following these pages, we get to the calendar portion of the diary. Each month has a 2-page spread with major holidays (Australia, New Zealand, and US) marked.
Following the monthly spreads are the weekly 2-page spreads. Each week has a section for notes and reminders, as well as a habit tracker, and a series of check boxes so you can monitor your self care as well as any potential appointments or deadlines you may have. The spaces aren’t lengthy, so this won’t work for journaling, but for tracking daily occurrences or even jotting down a moment of gratitude they are helpful!
Each week also has a 2-page spread that includes a drawing board page (a blank area for doodles) as well as places to track your missions in progress and a weekly menu planning section.
Now let’s get to the nitty gritty: how’s the paper? I’m please to report that the paper is excellent. Saint Belford represents that the paper is premium 100gsm wood-free paper. The paper is bright white, and a bit toothy. I tested a variety of fountain pens, gel ink and fine liners and the paper held up beautifully. In full light there is a scant trace of ghosting, but nothing else.
(yes there are other helpful pages too, but this is the back of the notes page so you can see my ink tests!)
Final Impressions
As someone with anxiety who loves to write everything down and make lists, this book is right up my alley. It is beautifully thought out and executed, giving you enough structure to start down the right path, but enough flexibility to allow you to make the book all about you. With the addition of high quality paper that handles fountain pens beautifully, and the elegant minimalist look, this book is a winner for me!
GIVEAWAY: Saint Belford would like to share a Curation 2019 Diary with one lucky reader!
Great news for our international readers! Saint Belford ships within Australia and internationally to New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, France & Germany.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me which section of the diary you think will be most useful to you! One entry per person please. If you leave multiple entries, you will be disqualified.
If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the moneys time.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Saturday. Winners will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form (where it say “email address”) so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 7 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Saint Belford for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Love this review and the concept behind the planner. I would really like the self care focused pages where you write down things that refresh you in 10, 30 and 60 minutes. I think it could be very good for me as I often forget to take care of myself so having something I can refer to when I have lots of time I can spend on myself and also when I’m stressed out it can remind me to take just 10 minutes out to look after my brain. I also like the fact there are different categories of things you can do so you can pick whichever category you would find most benifical at that time.
I would love the weekly habit tracker section!
This would be used by my wife, but knowing her, the 2-page spread with the facing doodle page would be the ones she would home in on … Thanks for the opportunity.
The self-care menu section.
I love the weekly menu, habit tracker and how it prompts you to be more thoughtful, intentional and organized about your year!
I love the habit tracker and weekly food planner!
The Savings section appeals to me.
I love the daily lists with checkboxes.
I like the “Conversation Starter”. I think the most useful will be the “Savings Curator” though…
This planner is fantastic! I would use it for my well being/self care book
The bucket list.
The bucket list page! My family and I are all about traveling and experiences. The whole planner looks like it would be ideal!
The Drawing Board, the calendar and the habit tracker 🙂 Also I took a look on the website and they sell sticker packs as an accessory that look really useful.
This is a pretty cool looking planner! I think the savings section would be the most useful, kind of a neat set-up.
The mission and habit curator sections would be perfect. Monitoring my mental health and acts of self-care are my priorities in 2019 and this would be perfect to assist.
The self-care menus would be really great for me. I have some trouble being sure I set aside time for these things, and having a reminder of the things I should be doing would be very helpful.
Love the motivational quotes and the guides!
I’d use the Self-Care Menu and then the monthy/week-tracker for Habits. Love those right up at the top of the page!
The daily list with the check boxes looks good to me.
Mind, body, and soul. Thanks for the giveaway!
That two page spread would unclutter my weekly organizing wonderfully!
The bucket list section and self-care sections would be amazing for my goal setting for the year!
I like the entire concept of this planner, but my favourite part is definitely the “Self Care Menu”.
For me the bucket list section would be very interesting. I always think of bucket as to do someday in my life, not next year or this year. I should probably work on that!
The Mission pages and Habit Curator would be the main ones for me.
It’s got to be the self care
I love the Habit Curator section, and this looks very well thought out. Every section would be usable for me!
The R U OK section is great to see – mental health is very important to me, especially being in a stressful university environment and always wanting to see my friends take care of themselves.
I like the habit tracker and self care sections
I like the drawing boxes and habit tracker also!
The structure it provides by reminding me to be grateful for something, even if its a cup of coffee, is helpful
This is an interesting approach that goes beyond the typical calendar and task list. For me, the bucket list would be the most useful feature. I can see this as something to review weekly to make sure that what I am doing is leading towards getting some of the bucket list items completed. Sure wish this was tied into Ryder Carroll’s bullet journal process.
I love the weekly check-in for goals/missions – it’s easy to lose sight of the long term when you’re just trying to get through each days as it comes, so I’d use that to keep my eyes on the prize!
I think the 2 pages following the weekly pages would be very useful for all the miscellaneous notes throughout the week! Great planner!
I’m intrigued by the self-care section! That’s definitely something I don’t currently track in my planner, but what better place for it could there be?
This planner looks gorgeous! The self-care section is brilliant (I keep meaning to make such a list but have never managed it). I’m very impressed by the design.
This looks like a lovely journal . I particularly liked the bucket list as I still have a few things left on mine.
The monthly spread would be wonderful for me! I do like the other sections a lot, it was a hard decision to just pick one!
This planner sounds like the most wonderful organizational tool a person could have. It covers so many areas to focus on. Love the Self Care and Bucket List.
This planner has it all for the Simple Pledge of putting yourself first.
this planner looks wonderful, though I do love my current bullet style journal. I like that this includes things like: bucket list, and meal planning, both things that I put into my bullet journal.
I work with a non profit organization, and i think the starting a conversation by R U OK, would actually be the most helpful to me in navigating the often difficult circumstances that affect those around me.
I the section “My Self-Care Menu” would be useful for me.
The day section with the trackers looks great.
I am intrigued by this planner because in the past I have only used one to keep track of appointments, dates, etc. so features like the habit tracker and menu planner would be new to me. I think it would be fun to try out.
I love that the focus is on taking care of you! We spend so much time caring for others and often put ourselves last. What a fabulous planner!
Looks like a cool planner! I think having a 2-week spread for each week will be useful for having the assigning the right amount of detail/tasks for each day (and seeing an overview of the week easily). Also, the focus on Mind, Body, and Soul for Self-Care sounds like it’ll help keep me accountable!
The Drawing Board pages. Thanks for the chance to win!
I really like pages with quotes. I’ve been feeling down, unmotivated, this planner will help me get back on track!
I would hop on the notes page and the drawing board because my imagination started need a blank page and sometimes some prints in between to guide me! I am absolutely excited about this giveaway! Looks great! Best of luck to all the entries
I absolutely love this as a journal/planner. I too have so much anxiety that checking my lists several times a day is the norm. I think I would like the self care and missions tracking best cause that is what I think other planners don’t do well. Hope I win!
The self care part because it’s so easy to overlook that part of my day!
Love this whole concept! I think I’d get the most use out of the self care pages. While I do take the time to stop for that, having a list of go-to items up front will nicely focus me. Thanks!
The drawing board pages
I do like the habit tracker section.
I love the self-care section and the bucket list. What a great planner!
I think the mission pages would be most helpful to me! I’m trying to be and do better every day!
Thanks for running this give-away.
I am very excited about the saving curator section of the diary. It seems very practical to have that on hand at all times.
I think the Weekly Planner section would work for me the best, especially the Doodle/Notes page.
I’m excited about the week spread section!
The monthly calendar section would be useful to me!
I’ll have to say all the space it has for notes. that is the (main) reason I keep my Franklin. The bucket list is interesting just because I don;t have one… maybe it would encourage me to think one up.