MacGyver ottoman

So, this Saturday, I finished an ottoman that was the ultimate test of my MacGyver crafting skills. I started it on Victoria Day thinking, "Alright, so I need to cut some wood, stain it, upholster the top half, screw it all together, it'll be a sinch!" (Who says sinch anymore but me?!)
Well, the process was quite the opposite. First off, I used an old cedar fence post for the legs. I thought the sanding would be the hard part, but no, it was the fact that my mitre saw doesn't fit a 4" post, so it had to be cut by hand. Hello, carpal tunnel syndrome.
So, the rest of the woodworking went pretty smoothly. Here's a shot of the posts post-finishing (yup, I only finished the part that was going to show), I thought the transformation was pretty cool.


Then came the upholstery. I started it Friday after work, and the first part went following to plan. I did find a new way to cut 4" foam that works waaay better than an exacto knife, and that's with a hand saw. Much easier to cut through 4" foam than 4" cedar.
So Saturday morning I got up thinking, "Alright, just the buttons, then put it all together!" I was sooo wrong. First off, you're not supposed to use a thick material like velvet for those "cover it yourself" buttons. Thank goodness I bought 6 of them, even though I only needed 4. When I screwed up 2, I got to the last one knowing it was my last chance. Luckily it worked, and "all" I had to do was thread the cords through the upholstery.
Well, I had a 4" needle thinking that would get through 4" foam. Nope. I tried pushing the cord through with a knitting needle. Nope. Taping the cord to the end of a bamboo skewer and pulling it through. Nope (there is now a wad of electrical tape somewhere in the middle of my ottoman). I thought, if only there was a way to make the skewer into a giant long needle. Well, there is! I decided to try drilling a tiny hole in the skewer with my Dremel. I really didn't think for a second I would have a steady enough hand to pull it off, but somehow it worked! Here's my ingenious new invention:

I then made use of the CSI gunshot-trajectory-method to find the hole in the underside of the top section, and used giant nails as toggles to keep the cord from sliding back through. Yeah, the underside of this thing is not pretty.
It's now 2 hours later, and sure enough, all I have to do is screw it all together, and this part really was a sinch, although it took almost an entire carton of screws.
I would like to welcome you to the newest addition to my family, the MacGyver Ottoman:

Isn't it precious?