kudos.

Remember when I said that I loved the phrase "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful?" (BTW turns out it was William Morris who said that. Duh. Thanks to the commenter who told me that!) Well, my absolute favourite thing is when usefulness and beauty are combined.

Today, after weeks of waiting (thank you Canada Post strike) I finally got the laptop sleeve that I ordered from Botene on Etsy. Laptop sleeves are usually ugly neoprene things, but not this one. It's beautiful and the best part about it is that it's beautifully made and so practical. The fabric is nicer than the pictures show and the quality of the sowing is remarkable. (I'm in awe of people who can sow since Home Ec. gave me a better education in untangling bobbins from sowing machines than actual sowing.)

So despite it's very, very late delivery, which had nothing to do with Bijal who runs this delightful little Etsy shop (again, thank you Canada Post), I'm very satisfied with my purchase. And you've gotta love some one who takes the time to wrap it up in such a cute way and handwrite you a thank you note for the purchase. (Also, when I emailed Bijal about my sleeve to find out if she knew where it was in the silly postal system, she was really sweet and even called the post office to find out where it might be despite a lack of tracking number.) So if you're in the market for a gorgeous sleeve for your electronics (she does ones for e-readers and iPads, too) take a look at Botene.