WP 3.4.2
Atahualpa 3.7.9
http://meanttosoar.com

I managed to solve several issues regarding ‘excerpts’ but still struggling with a few.
1) I want the text to wrap around the thumbnail.
2) I also want the border around the thumbnail.

I tred this code in css insert to try and wrap the text but it didn’t work
.widget img { float: center; }
.postthumb {
display:block;
float:left;
margin:10px 10px 10px 0px;
}

The excerpt should look like the full post:
http://meanttosoar.com/the-cost-of-s...lighting-up-4/

How about just putting float:left in ATO>Post Thumbnails>Post Thumbnails CSS box?

Putting float:left didn't change anything.

Also what about my 2nd question 'how do I get the border around
the thumbnail'? I want the excerpts to look consistent with full posts.

where did you get the class '.postthumb' from?

are you using the 'featured Image' option of the posts? It doesn't look like you are. If you were it would automatically have the text to the right of the image.