You might wanna do a little research first, there are a large number of choices out there. Is this a one time only project or are you intending on getting into electronics a bit more? What people recommend as far as devices/programmers go is really going to depend on your intentions for the long run. PicAXE would do fine for a one time project for the cost, but if you want to continue developing this stuff and learning you're going to want a real programmer, the cost would be a bit more still relatively inexpensive either way though.
Also for a basic electronics primer I'd recommend going to allaboutcircuits.com and reading up they have a very nice chapterized basic electronics page, although I prefer the forums here.