Static Homepage and Author Question

Hi!

So far i am loving the theme but have a few questions. I’m designed a static homepage I love, but when I try to implement it, i lose the slider and the featured boxes, which were two of the main reasons i got this theme. But if i can only show archived posts as tthe home page then the slider is very repetitive. Please advise as to how I can custom design my homepage while keeping these features.

I’m also trying to add a photo of me for the author widget on the side bar and you need an image URL? I tried google drive and imgur and no url works. please help!