Anyone? Adding featured posts gallery/boxes below header

Hi there,

I posted this ages ago but got no responses, and the forums are getting a bit more lively lately so I thought I’d try posting it again, since I still haven’t found the solution I’m looking for.

I’d like to make a thumbnail grid at the top of my home page (it should appear above all posts as well) that looks like the ones on these sites below, with text. Ideally it would be in or below the header or top nav space.
http://gothamist.com

http://theawl.com


I am looking to find a plugin that does this since I’m at a pretty basic level with coding and jquery.
I’d like the images to be ones that are associated with featured posts of my choice by date. Text would be the post title and some intro copy. They should link to individual posts.
I’d like it to go just below the header and the top nav. The theme I’m using does NOT offer a top nav widget space, only two sidebar widgets.

I managed to hack the WP Carousel plugin on my site
http://cityrat.com
to stay still and display the content images, and took off the navigation bits like this:

http://furgarden.com
(my test site)
That worked fine, but an update to that plugin deleted it due to some copyright issue with the original (havent updated that plugin on test site but cant get it back on my other site).

I’d like to find something more elegant with more flexibility, especially at some point when I move to a theme with a header widget space. I’m currently using evidens white theme.

any assistance would be much appreciated, anybody out there??!

Changing my header image is not the issue, by the way.

Many thanks in advance,
Michelle