Hanging Bookshelf Revisited

The hanging bookshelf that I originally showed a LONG TIME AGO (August last year...oops) has finally made an appearance on my radar of things to accomplish.

As a refresher....I'm making my own version of this:

It has been a very long and drawn out process. A few months back, I cut all of my pieces for the project (only two instances of blocks flying 300mph across the garage...funny now...not so amusing then), drilled all the holes for the string to flow through, and set them happily in the Lowes bag pictured below. And that's where they've sat since.  They smile at me everyday as I walk out the garage, and finally on Saturday, I grew the courage to dive in.
I originally started by living on the edge and putting out 3 cardboard squares in the living room for the staining.

I immediately sissy'ed out and put plastic underneath because the thought of a spill and the recourse from Terry was not worth my previously mentioned edge-living.

 I did a pre-stain on all the blocks to make sure I would get an even stain across the wood....no one wants to see a blotchy wood block.  Or maybe it's just me.

 Then I started in on the staining.  Right now I have three different stain variations and I'm liking the results.  I still have no idea how many blocks I actually need to complete the shelf, but I'm flying by the seat of my pants and hoping for the best.  This is how it still sits in the living room, where I have been intending to work on it every night while watching TV....but instead I'm snuggled up with T.  I'll get it together and continue the move-to-completion this weekend (FINGERS CROSSED).