diff --git a/src/app/app_brushes.cpp b/src/app/app_brushes.cpp
index f1dbe96b2..fd70a186f 100644
--- a/src/app/app_brushes.cpp
+++ b/src/app/app_brushes.cpp
@@ -179,20 +179,31 @@ AppBrushes::AppBrushes()
   m_standard.push_back(BrushRef(new Brush(kSquareBrushType, 7, 0)));
   m_standard.push_back(BrushRef(new Brush(kLineBrushType, 7, 44)));
 
-  try {
-    std::string fn = m_userBrushesFilename = userBrushesFilename();
-    if (base::is_file(fn))
+  std::string fn = userBrushesFilename();
+  if (base::is_file(fn)) {
+    try {
       load(fn);
+    }
+    catch (const std::exception& ex) {
+      LOG(ERROR, "BRSH: Error loading user brushes from '%s': %s\n",
+          fn.c_str(), ex.what());
+    }
   }
-  catch (const std::exception& ex) {
-    LOG(ERROR, "BRSH: Error loading user brushes: %s\n", ex.what());
-  }
+  m_userBrushesFilename = fn;
 }
 
 AppBrushes::~AppBrushes()
 {
-  if (!m_userBrushesFilename.empty())
-    save(m_userBrushesFilename);
+  if (!m_userBrushesFilename.empty()) {
+    try {
+      save(m_userBrushesFilename);
+    }
+    // We cannot throw exceptions from a destructor
+    catch (const std::exception& ex) {
+      LOG(ERROR, "BRSH: Error saving user brushes to '%s': %s\n",
+          m_userBrushesFilename.c_str(), ex.what());
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 AppBrushes::slot_id AppBrushes::addBrushSlot(const BrushSlot& brush)
diff --git a/src/app/xml_document.cpp b/src/app/xml_document.cpp
index 7628bc675..35bd5cd72 100644
--- a/src/app/xml_document.cpp
+++ b/src/app/xml_document.cpp
@@ -38,8 +38,10 @@ XmlDocumentRef open_xml(const std::string& filename)
 void save_xml(XmlDocumentRef doc, const std::string& filename)
 {
   FileHandle file(open_file(filename, "wb"));
-  if (!file)
+  if (!file) {
+    // TODO add information about why the file couldn't be opened (errno?, win32?)
     throw Exception("Error loading file: " + filename);
+  }
 
   if (!doc->SaveFile(file.get()))
     throw XmlException(doc.get());