Creating my own text for welcome message

How do I create a blank text area on my page (lets say below the page top menu bar, but above the first module on my page. I would like to create a space where I can place a welcome message and possibly a photo to make the page more inviting. 

Thanks

OK, so I have managed to find out how to add a HTML block, but what I am trying to find out now is how I can add an image from my computer into this HTML block. 

Another example on what I want to do is design a logo for an advertiser and add that onto my site. The only way I can think how I can do that is to create one of these HTML blocks and then design the logo (with photoshop) and then add it to this block. But all I can see about adding an image is from a URL, not from my computer.

Any suggestions on this?

This should have been posted in the 7.1 forum.

You need to first upload the images to the server; you can upload them to the /media directory as a good place or create a new directory inside of the media folder.  Then you can insert the image using the URL of your site, http://my-domain.tld/media/my-image.jpg as an example.

Thank you - that helps.

Also, as where to post these questions, it wasn't really clear on where I should have posted, but thank you for pointing me in that direction.