Text Boxes in place of Featured Content Boxes

[IconicImagery]

Hi there,

The site I am working on will not have any articles/content as such to feature, so I am wondering if it's possible to swap out the Featured Content areas and have a text widget or box in their place. Similar to the text areas on the Streamline homepage.

I tried copying and pasting details from Streamline but only eneded up with a giant mess.

One thing Ive done already is to flip the boxes around so that the larger one is on top and the two smaller ones are beneath it....

What I am trying to achieve is:
(1) the large one will be a Welcome with just a few paragraphs of text and then the small ones will be
(2) one small one would be a miniature version of a map that will link back to the main Map Page I have set up
(3) the other small one would be a News box which would feature the latest 1-3 entries from a News page....

Basically - its only the News box that would be dynamic, if that makes any sense? I have set up a category for this if that makes a difference?

Any suggestions on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated.

This is the code for my homepage as it currently stands...

<?php get_header(); ?>

<div id="content">

<div id="homepage">


<div id="homepagetop">

<div class="featuredtop">

<?php
echo apply_filters('the_content', '[slideshow=1]');
?>

</div>

</div>
<div id="homepagebottom">

<div class="hpbottom">
<h3><?php echo cat_id_to_name(get_theme_mod('featured_bottom')); ?></h3>

<?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=".get_theme_mod('featured_bottom')." &showposts=".get_theme_mod('featured_bottom_num')) ; while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
<?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", true) ): ?>
[img]<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/tools/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, [/img]&amp;h=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_bottom_thumb_height'); ?>&amp;w=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_bottom_thumb_width'); ?>&amp;zc=1" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
<?php else: ?>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php the_title(); ?>
<?php the_content_limit(350, __("[Read more of this review]", 'studiopress')); ?>

<hr/>

<?php endwhile; ?>

<?php $cat = get_category(get_theme_mod('featured_bottom')); ?>
<?php echo __("Read More Posts From ", 'studiopress')." ".$cat->name; ?>

</div>

</div>


<div id="homepageleft">

<div class="hpfeatured">
<h3><?php echo cat_id_to_name(get_theme_mod('featured_top_left')) ; ?></h3>

<?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=".get_theme_mod('featured_top_left') ."&showposts=".get_theme_mod('featured_top_left_nu m')); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
<?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", true) ): ?>
[img]<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/tools/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, [/img]&amp;h=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_top_left_thumb_height'); ?>&amp;w=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_top_left_thumb_width'); ?>&amp;zc=1" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
<?php else: ?>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php the_title(); ?>
<?php the_content_limit(80, ""); ?>

<hr/>

<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php $cat = get_category(get_theme_mod('featured_top_left')); ?>
<?php echo __("Read More Posts From ", 'studiopress')." ".$cat->name; ?>

</div>

</div>

<div id="homepageright">

<div class="hpfeatured">
<h3><?php echo cat_id_to_name(get_theme_mod('featured_top_right') ); ?></h3>

<?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=".get_theme_mod('featured_top_right' )."&showposts=".get_theme_mod('featured_top_right_ num')); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
<?php if( get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", true) ): ?>
[img]<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/tools/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, [/img]&amp;h=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_top_right_thumb_height'); ?>&amp;w=<?php echo get_theme_mod('featured_top_right_thumb_width'); ?>&amp;zc=1" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
<?php else: ?>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php the_title(); ?>
<?php the_content_limit(80, ""); ?>

<hr/>

<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php $cat = get_category(get_theme_mod('featured_top_right')); ?>
<?php echo __("Read More Posts From ", 'studiopress')." ".$cat->name; ?>

</div>

</div>



</div>

<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH."/sidebar.php");?>

</div>

<?php // The main column ends ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>