What we label and call "The Law of Attraction" is simply frequency waves matching up and producing what we also call a "Manifestation."

Here is my opinion on what the LOA is.

However, we are taught that manifestation is the result of a process that begins with a desire, an image, belief, intention, acting as if we already have it, then forget about it.

Well there is just a small detail that you left out the that sentence. There is a difference between conscious and unconscious manifestation.

We don't have to necessarily have a desire, image, or intention to have something show up in our lives. That would be considered a conscious manifestation.

We are manifesting all day and every single second of the day. If we weren't, we wouldn't exist in the physical body we are experiencing right this very moment. Manifestation is a constant mechanism that can't be shut off. If it ceases to be, then so does the human body. We are just so darn good at doing it, we don't define every second of our lives as an instant manifestation when that's what it actually is.

The Abraham-Hicks material is simply teaching us how to take control of the steering mechanism in the cockpit so we go where we choose to go instead of letting the auto-pilot take us to random destinations that we have no conscious knowledge of.

If this is the process, then how do I explain a gift that I can't even identify and would never desire, or an impulse buy of a unique object that such as an art piece that I couldn't possibly imagine.

Maybe the vibration that you do prefer to experience was only 49% that day, week, month, or year, while the vibration that you do not prefer was set at 51%. So if you manifested something that you didn't desire or imagine, then you probably weren't a vibrational frequency match to the things you do want. You may have been slightly on the opposite frequency range and the universe gave you the vibrational match that you were pulsing out.

Also, who is to say that those unwanted or unexpected things weren't part of something bigger. Maybe they were meant to lead you in a certain direction or open you up to a certain opportunity.

If you make how you feel in every given moment the most important thing in your life, everything else will completely and utterly take care of itself.

If you are feeling good most of the time and something unusual or unexpected comes into your life, you will be so addicted to the good feeling that you might say, "I know this (object) or (circumstance) has a positive meaning and I will most definitely get a positive experience from it"

If you are in the vortex of feeling good when you say that, you will always get a positive experience every time.

If you want to go a little deeper, be open to the idea that you are 100% responsible for everything that happens and comes into your life.

If you can wrap your mind around the answer I gave in the link just above, then understanding that every single material possession in your experience called physical life is a result of the LOA will be a whole lot easier to comprehend.

You are a Master Creator being that at some point along the way forgot that you were a Master Creator being. Every bit of the earth you experience is yours and your alone. You just chose to create the illusion of "other people and things" along with forgetting that you are all those people and things.

It's all within you. You actually are the Law of Attraction in action:)