A fun microcontroller project we picked up a relatively short while ago, some programming for those who need to see real-life results. We started out with the Launchpad a wonderfully cheap little board that allows you to interface with the chip easily through usb. Programming is done in C, so if you don't know any programming, this is a great place to learn.
There are several projects that cascade off of the MSP, but are unrelated to each other.