New Items link on home page and date search calendar on advanced search page

[Joseph M]

How can I place a link on the home page of my site which returns new items for the current month.
My new items section on the front page is limited to six items and I want customers to be able to see everything I've listed for the current month on a single page.

Also, is there some kind of modification I can do to put calendar dropdowns on the advanced search page?
I think this is called a 'date picker'... like the one on the product entry page to enter the date available.
Currently, if the date isn't written in the correct format in advanced search it gives an error. I want to make it easy for visitors to select a date.

Thank you