I thing this is the beginning of my embedded world adventure. First "bigger project" and first project with working prototype made with proto PCB not a breadboard... I have been experimenting with micro-controllers earlier, but it was mostly to learn how it all works. I started my ?c adventure with AVR architecture, I think that it is a great place to start for the beginners that want to know how stuff works under the hood and Arduino is a to high level of abstraction for them.
Thermostat was based on Atmega 328p, I used some analog temperature meter and famous Hitachi hd44780 2x16 alphanumeric LCD driver to display preset and actual temperature and for input I used a rotary encoder, my favourite kind of input! Some really basic stuff but it was I fun project for Me :). And of course I made for It a "spider like" prototype!