diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index b7c4fff..59b8239 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -93,17 +93,27 @@ Send and get response from smtp server:
 .. code-block:: python
 
     r = message.send(to=('John Brown', 'jbrown@gmail.com'),
+                     render={'field1': 'X'},
                      smtp={'host':'smtp.mycompany.com', 'port': 465, 'ssl': True})
     assert r.status_code == 250
 
-Or send via Django email backend:
+
+Django
+------
+
+DjangoMessage helper sends via django configured email backend:
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
-    from django.core.mail import get_connection
-    from emails.message import DjangoMessageProxy
-    c = django.core.mail.get_connection()
-    c.send_messages([DjangoMessageProxy(message), ])
+    from emails.django_ import DjangoMessage as Message
+    message = Message(...)
+    message.send(mail_to=('John Brown', 'jbrown@gmail.com'),
+                 context={'field1': 'X'})
+
+Flask
+-----
+
+For flask integration take a look at `flask-emails <https://github.com/lavr/flask-emails>`_
 
 
 HTML transformer
diff --git a/emails/loader/__init__.py b/emails/loader/__init__.py
index d50697a..4989e4e 100644
--- a/emails/loader/__init__.py
+++ b/emails/loader/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # encoding: utf-8
 import os
 import os.path
+from emails.loader.local_store import FileNotFound
 from emails.compat import to_unicode
 from emails.compat import urlparse
 from emails import Message
@@ -9,6 +10,18 @@
 from emails.loader.helpers import guess_charset
 
 
+class LoadError(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
+class IndexFileNotFound(LoadError):
+    pass
+
+
+class InvalidHtmlFile(LoadError):
+    pass
+
+
 def from_url(url, message_params=None, requests_params=None, **kwargs):
 
     def _make_base_url(url):
@@ -37,7 +50,13 @@ def _make_base_url(url):
 def from_directory(directory, index_file=None, message_params=None, **kwargs):
 
     store = local_store.FileSystemLoader(searchpath=directory)
-    index_file_name = store.find_index_file(index_file)
+
+    try:
+        index_file_name = store.find_index_file(index_file)
+    except FileNotFound:
+        # reraise another exception
+        raise IndexFileNotFound('html file not found')
+
     dirname, _ = os.path.split(index_file_name)
     if dirname:
         store.base_path = dirname
@@ -45,6 +64,8 @@ def from_directory(directory, index_file=None, message_params=None, **kwargs):
     message_params = message_params or {}
     message = Message(html=store.content(index_file_name, is_html=True, guess_charset=True), **message_params)
     message.create_transformer(local_loader=store, requests_params=kwargs.pop('requests_params', None))
+    if message.transformer.tree is None:
+        raise InvalidHtmlFile("Error parsing file '%s'" % index_file_name)
     message.transformer.load_and_transform(**kwargs)
     message.transformer.save()
     return message
@@ -56,14 +77,22 @@ def from_file(filename, **kwargs):
 
 def from_zip(zip_file, message_params=None, **kwargs):
     store = local_store.ZipLoader(file=zip_file)
-    index_file_name = store.find_index_file()
-    dirname, index_file_name = os.path.split(index_file_name)
+
+    try:
+        origin_index_file_name = store.find_index_file()
+    except FileNotFound:
+        # reraise another exception
+        raise IndexFileNotFound('html file not found')
+
+    dirname, index_file_name = os.path.split(origin_index_file_name)
     if dirname:
         store.base_path = dirname
 
     message_params = message_params or {}
     message = Message(html=store.content(index_file_name, is_html=True, guess_charset=True), **message_params)
     message.create_transformer(local_loader=store, requests_params=kwargs.pop('requests_params', None))
+    if message.transformer.tree is None:
+        raise InvalidHtmlFile("Error parsing file '%s'" % origin_index_file_name)
     message.transformer.load_and_transform(**kwargs)
     message.transformer.save()
     return message
diff --git a/emails/loader/local_store.py b/emails/loader/local_store.py
index 16eb237..c0f58cc 100644
--- a/emails/loader/local_store.py
+++ b/emails/loader/local_store.py
@@ -83,8 +83,9 @@ def find_index_file(self, filename=None):
                 else:
                     html_files.append(filename)
 
-        if html_files:
-            return html_files[0]
+        # Ignore hidden files (filename started with dot)
+        for fn in filter(lambda p: not os.path.basename(p).startswith('.'), html_files):
+            return fn
 
         raise FileNotFound('index html')
 
diff --git a/emails/testsuite/message/data/pushkin.jpg b/emails/testsuite/message/data/pushkin.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..744c0eb
Binary files /dev/null and b/emails/testsuite/message/data/pushkin.jpg differ
diff --git a/emails/testsuite/message/helpers.py b/emails/testsuite/message/helpers.py
index a0c8cb8..c79e899 100644
--- a/emails/testsuite/message/helpers.py
+++ b/emails/testsuite/message/helpers.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 import os
 
 import emails
-from emails.compat import StringIO
 from emails.template import JinjaTemplate
 
 TO_EMAIL = 'jbrown@hotmail.tld'
@@ -12,6 +11,9 @@
 TRAVIS_CI = os.environ.get('TRAVIS')
 HAS_INTERNET_CONNECTION = not TRAVIS_CI
 
+ROOT = os.path.dirname(__file__)
+
+
 def common_email_data(**kw):
     T = JinjaTemplate
     data = {'charset': 'utf-8',
@@ -23,8 +25,8 @@ def common_email_data(**kw):
             'headers': {'X-Mailer': 'python-emails'},
             'message_id': emails.MessageID(),
             'attachments': [
-                {'data': 'aaa', 'filename': 'κατάσχεση.ics'},
-                {'data': 'bbb', 'filename': 'map.png'}
+                {'data': 'Sample text', 'filename': 'κατάσχεση.txt'},
+                {'data': open(os.path.join(ROOT, 'data/pushkin.jpg'), 'rb'), 'filename': 'Пушкин А.С.jpg'}
             ]}
     if kw:
         data.update(kw)