See I disagree with the school of "just decide on a project and Google"
That might be okay if you have an understanding of PHP however if you are very new to it then how do you know what to google and then whether it's good or right.
Personally I would go for a good project book, not a long winded one, but one that get's you right into the coding and build something you can then related what you are learning to and use a reference later. Granted there is no perfect text that will cover everything but you can at last get a good foundation to then build on.
Sitepoint has a good resource
http://www.sitepoint.com/php/ and also a nice intro book for using php and mysql over here
http://www.sitepoint.com/store/php-mysql-novice-to-ninja/
In my view that is going to get you started both quicker and more efficiently to allow you to then move on and develop your apps.
There has been a lot of things happen lately due to poorly coded software/apps involving php so it's a good move to get the fundamentals right.