QUIRKY GIFTER

I grew up in Oregon and am the mother of three amazing adult children and four beautiful grandchildren who call me G-Ma. There are many other little ones that also call me G-Ma, because I believe that a child can never have too many grandparents. I am a special education assistant and sometimes do administrative work at the local schools. I love working with the little ones. I am also on the board of directors at our local live theatre, a place I call my second home.

I consider myself an accidental artist. I got started by gluing rocks in the shape of flowers onto an old piece of wood. I made them to put in my backyard garden for a whimsical touch. The next thing I knew friends were asking me to make them something. So I started collecting old pallets to cut up for wood. I hand sanded and treated the wood pieces with either paint or polyurethane. I mostly created flowers and dragonflies in the beginning.

I soon found that my art made people smile, and that is exactly what keeps me wanting to create more. Over the past few years I have honed my skills, and my art has become much more detailed depicting people, animals, sea life, and much more. I use natural and recycled materials as much as possible. I get ideas from everywhere! Sometimes friends suggest things, other times I see a scene and then try to recreate it. Every piece of art is unique and one-of-a-kind.

Many people ask me where I get the materials I use. About 12 years ago our family had taken a trip to Montana and we went to the Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine. We had purchased several bags of dirt that we had to clean to find the sapphires in it. Well, it all sat in the garage for several years until I decided that maybe I could find sapphires to use in my art. After cleaning it all I did find a couple dozen sapphires, which aren’t worth much raw, but I also discovered hundreds of rock and agate pieces that could be used as arms, legs, shoes, shirts, skirts, dresses and so much more. 
I also make trips to the Oregon Coast to search for the perfect pebbles, agates, seashells, etc. It’s a great excuse to go to the beach. The grandkids know to always be looking for things I can use in my art. I have also been lucky enough to have some lovely seashells given to me by some generous friends. The wood I use is reclaimed wood from different places. Sometimes I use old pallets, old fence boards,or whatever I can find.

I have created over 200 unique pieces of art and sold over 100 of them to friends, online, and by participating in holiday bazaars. I have even created a piece of Covid Art. Some of my most popular pieces have been The Reading Room and The Hairdresser, which folks like to give as a gift to their favorite beautician. I have done several versions of each of these, but they are all unique one-of-a-kind pieces of rustic art.

​I want my art to make people smile, and I feel I have succeeded. I hope it puts a smile on your face too.  

I’m Belle Raponi, creator of all things magical! My mission is to keep life fun, bring smiles to faces, walls and hands! I’ve always done some sort of craft since I was little, and it’s just evolved over the years. I need a creative outlet. In 1991 I was in a serious car accident and was home bound for about 12 years. Amidst many therapies and re-learning to do many basic human functions, I started doing different types of crafts.
The shadowboxes emerged from my wanting to make a good friend a birthday gift and one of the only things he enjoyed was beer, so I made a beer shadowbox. Another friend saw that and wanted one and it took off from there. I made those under the name Shadowboxables for several years, then branched out to other things as I was gifted a silhouette machine. It’s allowed me to do more creative things both in my shadowboxes and with things like wood signs.
I had a craft booth at a local store for about 8 years and would often switch up my decor in there. I’d done an extensive Christmas project with a magic theme and had started making magic wands. On a whim I decided to bring some into the shop and they sold out. Twice! So, I put on my thinking cap and figured it was a good time to switch to all things magical!
The store did a Saturday market that I attended that year, and found that I loved doing vendor events, so I left the store atmosphere and opted for the vendor events for the next couple years under the name “Magic & More”.
When the pandemic hit and all the vendor events were cancelled, I realized the necessity of a web page and settle on “Enchantinglymagical.com” as the domain name was not taken and I loved everything about the sound of it.
It takes me about a week, sometimes two to make the magic wands. Some of that time is finding the parts and pieces and stones then creating each piece, some of it is drying time, painting, wiring, last minute touch ups and then the naming and pricing process. Lots of care and love goes into each one of a kind item.
The magic wands are each given special properties, or names, if you will. I sit with each one and get the feel of the energy of the piece and then gift it a name. Whoever the wielder of the wand is gets to unlock it’s full potential. I figure it’s less like the wand chooses the wizard and more like they choose each other in a symbiotic relationship. 🙂
My wands are made for mature young people (not young kids) and the young at heart as many of them are breakable. I know lots of people who collect them (including me!) They are heat sensitive so don’t leave them in direct sunlight or in a car in the summertime.
The dragon eggs also take a week or so based on how many colors are in them. Once I have all the pieces painted (they are made with thumbtacks, so they are not for young people), it takes me about 4 hours for a large one. They are then sealed for an extra layer of protection! The baskets are also hand made by a friend of mine who uses the scraps from making wool blankets and rugs. They are made specifically for each size and color.
I’m a lover of learning, a believer in self development, meditation and quieting the mind. I’m all about having fun in life, no matter the circumstance, especially now. I’m a believer that we get to choose how we perceive things, and our choices equal the kind of life we have. The more we look for the good stuff, the more we find it, and I like the good stuff!

I read recently about the alligator that had once lived in the bathtub of the East Wing of the White House. Although interesting, this article about White House pets differed from an earlier account that I recall reading, which makes me wonder which is correct. Supposedly, the American Revolutionary War hero, Marquis de Lafayette presented Thomas Jefferson with a baby alligator that the president placed in the bathtub, and, as animals tend to do, it grew and grew until it was a horrifying sight complete with big teeth and scary eyes. Another version claimed Lafayette gave the alligator to President John Adams, and a third version made it a gift to President James Madison. Doubting Lafayette gave alligators to three presidents, I suspect none of the stories are true. 

Being neither an historian nor an academic, I don’t know twiddle from twaddle, but I suspect the stories may have developed from an earlier quirky but true story.

Western explorer Zebulon Pike, he of Pike’s Peak and Masonic fame and himself the definition of quirky, presented Thomas Jefferson with two bear cubs. Jefferson kept the cubs as pets, and as animals tend to do, they grew and grew until they had to be kept in cages outside on the White House lawn for the entertainment of visitors. In those days the White House belonged to the people who could come and go as they pleased, which would make Jefferson’s exhibited bears the earliest federally supported free public zoo.

Are the bears the oddest pets to entertain a president? Pets are common in the White House. Donald Trump is only the second president to not have a pet; James Knox Polk was the first.

During the Civil War the White House fell into some disrepair and when Andrew Johnson moved in he found it infested with mice. He took a liking to them and spread grain around his bed so they could eat while he snored. As animals tend to do, they grew and grew in number. Imagine the President of the United States sleeping in bed with a hundred mice scampering around him. When he refused his daughter’s plea to exterminate the rodents, she went behind his back and had it done without his consent. 

Other presidents, especially Theodore Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Calvin Coolidge, had a menagerie of exotic animals that included a kangaroo and a pygmy hippo, but they sound more like collections than pets. James Buchanan received an elephant as a gift, and Congress gave him permission to keep it on the White House lawn. Woodrow Wilson had sheep to mow the grass. John Adams kept silkworms in the White House, but again I don’t know that they would qualify as “pets”. 

Perhaps the quirkiest pet was not unusual but it was certainly a “character”. Andrew Jackson had a sailor-mouthed parrot named Polly that enjoyed insulting people with strings of curses and four letter words, much to the delight of Jackson whose backwoods grit horrified the cultured Washington elites. He so loved Polly that it was brought to his funeral, but when it began shouting curses at the guests, it was ejected from the proceedings.
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At the Quirky Gifter Craft Fair you might not find a living pet, but you can certainly find unusual handcrafted animals. They might not shout curses at your guests, but they could still be the highlight of your party. Dragon egg, anyone?

Diane Boettcher of Mount Shasta City claimed to have a flaming white angel on her television screen. The time was August 1987 during the first Harmonic Convergence on the slopes of Mount Shasta. Depending on estimates, up to 6,000 people attended the event, now an annual festival, to herald in a New Age of Spirituality, so the timing of the appearance of a flaming white angel was perfect for people seeking a supernatural “sign”.
She explained she had been watching a local news report on the Harmonic Convergence when suddenly the image of a white angel superimposed itself over the regular televised picture. She could change channels, even turn the television off and on, and the image remained.
“She’s really beautiful,” said Boettcher of the angel. “[She is] all rainbow colored. At times there is a golden halo and a white aura all around her.  She loves children.”
News of the angel caused a sensation. Thousands of people lined up to see Boettcher’s “holy television”. That there was a human-like shape on the screen was never questioned, but interpretations of the image varied. Some saw what Boettcher evidently saw, a flaming angel of love, while others saw Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and even an alien “being of light” from outer space. 
Her living room became a mecca where people knelt in front of the television to pray. As the line of pilgrims grew longer outside her home, countless newspaper and television reports followed, including a write-up in the Washington Post, speculating on what was causing the phenomenon and what it might mean. 
One of the visitors was Bob Wilson, owner of Shiloh Electronics in Mount Shasta City. He immediately recognized the image as the work of a faulty capacitor. “I didn’t say anything in the house because there were people praying in front of the television and I didn’t know how to break it to them.”
Back in his shop he installed a bad capacitor on a display television and sure enough, the flaming angel appeared. For $99.99 Wilson offered to transform any ordinary television into a “Holy TV”
He sold not a single one.
There are no bad capacitors for sale on Quirky Gifter, but you might find something even better than a flaming white angel. Check out our shop of unique, handcrafted gifts and talents today!

French composer Erik Satie (1866 –1925) founded the minimalist avant-garde movement that included Claude Debussy, with whom he publicly feuded over which had influenced the other. As a musician—Satie preferred being called a “phonometrician” (a measurer of sounds)—he had a direct influence on Maurice Ravel, one of his students, Olivier Messiaen, and John Cage. Satie is well-known not only for his quirky compositions, but also for his personal eccentrics.
He once composed a piece so radical that it caused a riot outside the concert hall. He was arrested and jailed for eight days for promoting “cultural anarchy”. 
Satie is often cited as the inventor of “background music” for a piece composed where the audience members were encouraged to speak to each other as they sat encircled by the musicians. When they refused to talk and instead wanted to listen to his music, he went into a rage and kicked everyone out.
Of his work, he stated that “musical ideas played no part whatsoever in their composition.” He predicted that would be the future of music shaped increasingly by “scientific” technology.
His quirkiness extended to his personal life. In his early days Satie preferred dressing in a black clerical cassock. Then in middle age his taste suddenly shifted. He purchased twelve identical gray suits, placed eleven in a closet and wore one until it became threadbare, at which time he would retrieve another from storage and wear until it, too, needed replacing. Six suits remained untouched at the time of his death.
He went to extraordinary lengths to bleach his food because he felt it unhealthy to eat anything with color. He walked looking backward over his shoulder for fear of being attacked, and he carried a hammer for protection against muggers. Instead of a pillow, his bed had a hole into which he could insert his head so blood could flow to his brain.
Satie lived in a tiny apartment described as a “wardrobe closet”. He refused for twenty-seven years to allow anyone to enter. When he died, it was a cluttered mess, filled with cobwebs and debris, including two pianos, one stacked atop the other due to lack of space, over 100 umbrellas, and countless scraps of paper with unusual drawings, expressions, and musical notations. 
On one scrap of paper he wrote “My name is Erik Satie, like everyone else” and another listed his daily routine: “I rise at 7:18; am inspired from 10:23 to 11:47. I lunch at 12:11 and leave the table at 12:14.”
Historians are divided on whether the musical genius had a mental illness or was just a big jokester mocking convention. Either way, he was certainly quirky.
If you are looking for a gift to celebrate the musical genius in your family, you can see what they think of a bed with a hole in it or, better yet, find the perfect handcrafted item here at Quirky Gifter!