see here for making a custom widget:

http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-a-custom-wordpress-widget/

site for additional info: http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-why-and-how-tos-of-creating-a-site-specific-wordpress-plugin/


LANGUAGE NOTES (USING PHP):

__ (two underscores) prefixing code means that Wordpress will be able to translate that code to it's functioning code. **the double underscore allows for localization of the code.