iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Had fun making a mess this week playing with texture and transparency. 🎨

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Work was bananas this week, so the rest of my time was spent reading (and being infuriated by how these women were treated and inspired by their determination) and doing some 5 min doodles. Sometimes taking my frustrations with the world out on the pencil. It's managing fine though. #art #drawings

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

I popped into a local art shop for some oil pastels and found some gouache in the sale section. I can’t ever seem to manage a proper swatch page so here’s me getting carried away with my first ever attempt with gouache. I love it already.

Daniel Smith gouache in a speedball notebook

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

My week in art projects and Nordic Noir. In search of better greens. Oil pastels, charcoal, and snowy mysteries are ideal for a November night in.

Green and pale yellow oil pastels and swatches

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Landscape and shape. The Canadian prairie.

Prairie landscape with graphitint block.

Prairie landscape with acrylic and oil pastels

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Inspired by some snowberries on what should be a bison pasture but is about to be suburbs. Oil pastels are my coping mechanism these days. 🎨

Abstract prairie landscape in blues and oranges

Abstract with the same blues and oranges

Prairie landscape with a large snowberry patch

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Sunflowers on a roof and some recent art projects. 🎨

Sunflowers on an apartment roof with a blue sky

A Kandinsky inspired circle piece in oil pastel colours I don’t usually use. Yellows oranges pinks and blues.

A prairie landscape sketch with oil pastels inspired by Scottish painter Joan Eardley

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

More good mess, this time smooshed seed pods from marigolds, purple peas, and calendula. Soft oil pastels are my new coping mechanism, I guess. Thanks to @art.prof and their monthly art dare for the inspiration.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

I got some oil pastels a couple weeks ago and have been making quite a lot of mess since. 🎨 #art #oilpastels #mixedmedia #landscape

Late summer prairie landscape. Mixed media.

Late summer prairie landscape. Oil pastels

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

I thought I didn’t like oil pastels but it turns out I only ever used hard ones. Soft ones are so much fun to make a mess with. #art #oilpastel

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

So far this year, l've read books from Panama, Bermuda, Malawi, and Paraguay which gets me to 70% of the countries in the world! #readaroundtheworld 💙📚 🌏📚

World map with countries coloured in if I’ve read books from them.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Here’s a prancing magpie friend for the chubby pigeon. #artsky #art #drawing. #sketching 🎨🖌️

A black and white sketch of a magpie prancing through the grass.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

And also sketching plants and animals outdoors. #artsky #art 🎨🖌️ #drawing

Wild rose, lilac (questionable), willow, and dandelion with wonky grass shadows in ink

Saskatoon berries, black poplar, and burdock leaves in ink

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

My midlife crisis is just getting back into acrylic paints. #artsky #art #acrylicpaint 🎨 #painting

Sunset from purple to pink orange then yellow

Pink orange and yellow sunset over dark purple foreground

Abstracts playing with mixing shades of green

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Reposted by Nicole Bergen

Haaretz.com @haaretzcom.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Gaza's malnourished children cannot wait. They need food now | Haaretz Editorial

haaretz.com

Gaza's malnourished children cannot wait. They need food now | Editorial

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

I collaged myself a couple of phone case inserts today (I have a clear case) with leftover bits from other projects and I love how they turned out. #art #collage #artsky #craftsky

One collaged purple case and one with a yellow and orange building with a sunset and with galaxy cutout.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

The fact that you have to double check whether a headline is satire or reality these days. 😢

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Nanking cherry blossoms are gorgeous. I don't know what variety of lilac this is, but it's fancy. And this family of Johnny Jump-Ups would like to say hello. #Photography #plantsplantsplants #plantsmakepeoplehappy #flowerlover

White lilac blossoms with tinges of pink and strangely pointy petals.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

It’s a hermit and collage weekend. Some storage boxes needed a new look. #collage #mixedmedia #upcycle

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

If you need cheering up, may I recommend dandelion lemon butter cookies. Recipe from The Green Witch here: youtu.be/5dsuLN_8hn8?... #witchsky #pagansky #herbalism #foraging #baking

A bowl with dandelions beside two lemons

A butter cookie with lemon curd on a serviette with a bumblebee

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

No chance we could do something about climate change, then?

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Endlessly fascinating. I’ll have to reread this to get a better handle on what scientists have been learning about what plants can do. Ecology as a study of communities is such an interesting idea. #booksky 💙📚 🌱 #plantsmakepeoplehappy

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

A few bumps on this road, but at least it’s bumblebee season! #tarotsky #witchsky

A tarot spread with the sacred bee tarot and oracle decks and some other tarot and herbalism clutter on a dresser.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

If you ever wondered how many plants can fit in a balcony garden, the answer is: a lot! This’ll be a lovely little forest in a month or two and block out my parking lot view. 🌱 #gardening #herbalism #plantsmakepeoplehappy

Many potted plants on a balcony and hanging of the balcony handrail

Many potted plants on a balcony and a watering can

Many potted plants on a balcony and hanging of the balcony handrail and a red chair

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I loved this book. The characters were all messy and complicated and I learned a lot about Bermuda through one remarkable and underestimated young woman. #booksky 💙📚 🌏📚 #readaroundtheworld

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

A sad and beautiful journey out of Tibet into Nepal and beyond. I loved the incorporation of spiritual beliefs that I’m unfamiliar with. An excellent first novel—I’d read more from her. #booksky 💙📚 🌏📚 #readaroundtheworld

We measure the earth with our bodies by tsering yangzom lama

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

The bumblebees are up and at it—spring has finally arrived on the Canadian prairies! 🌱 #protectnativebees

A bumblebee on what might be nanking cherry flowers.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

I went foraging for poplar buds today (for a poplar wormwood balm). They’re so sticky but wonderful and they smell like spring. #foraging #herbalism #plantsmakepeoplehappy 🌱

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

I liked this one a lot. A little bit 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Alice in Wonderland. We’re all mad here. It’s slightly too believable. If my personal library ever gets me into trouble, at least I’ll know where the little white rabbits come from. In the meantime, I’m off to read another book. 💙📚🌍

The book censor’s library by Bothayna Al-Essa

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

When in Saskatoon, I do need to stock up on Saskatoon berry products! And used books from the store nearby. #booksky 💙📚 🌏📚 #readaroundtheworld #poetry

A stack of books with Saskatoon chocolates, bison jerky and sparkling apple cider.

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Nicole Bergen @acottagewitch.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

I voted early so, naturally, I rewarded myself with books from @shelflifebooks.bsky.social. I’ll shop Canadian & also read authors from all over the world because we’re all connected and the sooner we stop blaming immigrants for the selfishness of property management corporations the better. 💙📚🌏

A floral notebook, Narinjah The Bitter Orange tree by Jokha Alharthi, and Shelf life chronicles of a Cairo bookseller by Nadia Wassef.

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