It may still be a chilly April in New York, but Spring has finally sprung (inside at least) for the city-dwellers: Love Adorned on New York's Elizabeth Street has just launched a display of terrariums in hand-made planters in blown glass, poured cement and thrown ceramic, containing succulents perfect for thriving indoors with us.

Love Adorned is a modern-day cabinet of curiosities in the form of a lifestyle concept store, with vintage display cases filled with interesting books, jewellery, lotions, potions and ceramics sourced by like-minded friends from all over the world. It's creator, Lori Leven of the city's famous tattoo destination, New York Adorned, has fashioned a home for pieces that address "beauty and utility" in our ever-changing and challenging lives, with all the tools a contemporary urbanite may need on her travels.  The store opened in December 2010 and changes its curated selection of pieces to suit its seasonal themes. New York Adorned's tattoo artists have also set up a pop-up space inside, for visitors that want to go home wearing something a little more permanent, while their flagship store is being renovated.

Find treasures in Love Adorned like Laura Zindel's ceramics from Vermont, with her hand-drawn naturalist illustrations that are silkscreened and transferred onto her ceramic homewares. Then there are the whimsical porcelain milk bottles from Alyssa Ettinger: found originally in abandoned dumps and urban vintage flea markets, then cast in porcelain to be cared for forever after.

Contemporary crafts and slow living are looking to be something of a theme at the upcoming Milan Furniture Fair, and we're well behind and one of the most anticipated exhibitions Fuori Salone (or off-site) is MINDCRAFT11 - a show featuring a new generation of Danish designers who are also themselves artisanal makers.

With twelve new works developed especially for the show, the emphasis is on quality, practical value and beauty. According to the curator, designer Cecilie Manz, "In the Nordic region we are renowned for outstanding practical value, visual humility, an exquisite sense of materials as well as pure and simple aesthetics. Now that the era of abundance is drawing to a close, perhaps we'll be able to rediscover and cultivate some of the basic values in our work."

Also important, as is apparent when you see the pieces, is experimentation. Anne Tophøj's Dinnerwarevision 5 is a case in point - and we've had the pleasure of getting a sneak preview at the Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen. A dinner set consisting of plates and bowls in various sizes in porcelain and stoneware, Tophøj has experimented with a variety of ceramic production methods that give quite random effects (yet could still potentially be produced in large amounts). For example, she has experimented with the use of forces that cannot be completely controlled: gravity, centrifugal forces, etc, to create warped edges and drips. It's all in a delicious colour palette too.

Other designers taking part include Ben and Sebastian, Mathias Bengtsson, Line Depping, and Gam Fratesi, among others. MINDCRAFT11 takes place 12-17 April in Ventura Lambrate, Galleria Alessandro De March, 6 Via Ventura, 20134 Milan.

It might be a funny time of year to start talking about Christmas baubles, but we're not prepared to wait another 10 months this new collection of tableware from German designer Sebastian Herkner.

Made in collaboration with Czech glass company Verreum and launched at the recent Ambiente fair in Frankfurt, Norma is a range that comprises a bowl, vase and a candleholder. Made of thin, blown glass which is color coated with silver inside the inspiration came from the manufacturing techniques used in certain seasonal fir tree decorations.

Happily, Norma can be used all year round. "The initial point of the design was to create an aura for each accessory itself," says Herkener. "The aura frames the flowers of the vase as well the fruits in the bowl. The reflections of shape and object meld and highlight them."  Don't expect hoards of copycat products anytime soon either, as apparently Verreum keeps the manufacturing technique a closely guarded secret.