Ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you that I’m constantly going over past decisions: why did I get the Speedy 30 instead of the Speedy 35 ? The latter being so much more practical for an everyday use. And 2 years ago when I was on a quest to find the perfect shoes for my wedding, maybe I should have gone with Manolo’s Hangisi pumps instead of settling for his Chaos sandals – as cliché as it sounds, they would have made for the perfect something blue… I’m always second-guessing my choices and while that might be aggravating for Habibi and my go-to shopping partner Fabiola, in my eyes it’s part of the shopping experience: choices have to be made and then I’m left mourning for the items I had to leave behind.

But sometimes I mourn for things that were never actually within my grasp, for things I wasn’t even on the market for… like a stationery store.

So here’s something else you need to know about me: I looooove stationery. It took me longer to choose my wedding invitations than it did to choose my wedding dress. I’m as excited to buy a new diary as I am to buy a new black crewneck sweater. And although my handwriting is terrible, I make it a point to handwrite my thank-you notes. If I had to open my own store one day, it’d be a stationery store; that’s why my heart sank when I read the article a friend of mine sent me about one that has recently opened in Montreal called Boucle & Papier. Clairefontaine, Garance Doré, Moleskine, Rhodia, Rifle Paper Co.. Perfection. It’s my store. Except that it’s not. All I can do is go there to stock up on miscellaneous stationery items, pens and pencils, quirky notebooks and… a new diary.

Boucle & Papier – 5183, boul. Saint-Laurent, Montréal