To address the need of covering buttons for the tufting, given a 60% off coupon and pleasant weather conditions we walked over to a local fabric shop where the staff now knows us by name to pick up a few size 30 button shells. I guess it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that they know us, I mean how often do they see two old guys wandering into a female dominated shopping environment asking technical questions that often send the girls running to their computers to look up what we're talking about in the first place? However, somewhat to our dismay, the product we picked up didn't feel quite right after we got home. At this point Alan started searching Craig's List and found a used button machine up for sale, my task was to negotiate a fair price. A few days later and we're now in the business of covering buttons! I say bring on the tufting projects!!!