Embracing the karate chop

So sometimes I fight things just because they are trendy, or because everybody is doing it. Sometimes it’s goofy, trivial things…like the pillow karate chop. You know the one – where you hi-yahhhh the middle of a pillow and it make each side poke up?

I was anti-chop until I discovered my love of the feather pillow. Then it was all over. Now I replace every insert with a feather one. I found some new pillows for the family room at HomeGoods (on our girls weekend in Chicago) and knew I wanted to replace the regular insert with a feather one.

If the pillow doesn’t have a zipper I just do what I do to make my placemat pillows – just open up a bit of the seam with a seam ripper:

And then you can stuff the new insert in and hand sew it up. It takes about five minutes.

I was all ready with my seam ripper to do the same to the new pillows until I turned it over and saw the buttons. Duh:

Honestly doing this is a bit of a splurge when you take all the pillows in the house into account – I mean I’m taking a completely fine pillow and changing it up. But I have found these inserts for pretty darn cheap at IKEA – only $6.99 each. I haven’t found them even close to that price anywhere else.

My feather insert obsession started about two years ago so I grabbed a bunch of inserts on one trip to IKEA back then and still have a couple left. They just give the pillow a little fluff:

Normal insert on the left, feather on the right. Tiny karate chop.

I’ve also found many of the pillows at HomeGoods and TJ Maxx have feather inserts, so you can find clearanced out pillows for pretty cheap and use the insert. :)

I think picking out pillows is hard. I like to mix patterns but it takes me forever to end up with a combo I love. This one I love:

It kind of feels springy to me too – I have hope it will arrive!! I will now have these pillows for the next five years so I don’t have to change them again. Stress.

I don’t do a full out chop – just a small one. And most of the time they don’t look like this, pretty much only when I take photos for the blog. The chop does help when the dog hops around on the pillows and back of the couch – he does it for me. :)

It’s just a little thing that makes pillows look really full and lush. They aren’t as comfy to lay your head on though – you’ll need two or three for every one with a regular insert. Your husband will remind you of this every. single. time.

There you go. I’ve embraced the chop, a little bit at least. Do you use feather inserts? Could you care less? It’s a little thing but I love the look of them!