country scroller, there is nothing wrong with staining. In fact, its the best way to start out. Exotic wood is expensive, where as pine is cheap. Practice first and as you get better, move up to domestics like, oak, walnut and popular. little more expensive than pine, but still affordable. Thats just my view of it.
Also, I have used acrylic paints and kinda wipe and wash so the grain still shows through.