You're welcome.
You can do what you're looking for by putting the right code in a text widget and positioning the content in front of the grey strip (or where the grey strip was). To test this, try the following:
Copy the URLs of any image and any webpage. Add this in a text widget:
<div id="mysyndi">
<a href="WEBPAGE URL HERE" target="_blank"><img src="IMAGE URL HERE" height="24" /></a>
</div>
Then temporarily remove the CSS you've added and add this instead:
#syndication, #searchbox {display:none;}
#mysyndi {position:absolute;top:264px;left: 344;z-index: 11;}
But I'm no CSS expert. When thesacredpath or hallluke drop by, they might be able to refine this or suggest a better alternative.