Is it possible to use css to tell the border to be an image instead of a color, maybe like

border-top: url(borderimage.jpg)

I think the border-image attribute is still being developed, not sure though. There is still a way to achieve the effect, much like the rounded corners or dropped shadow effects.

I'm just trying to figure out a better way to design the boxes that hold the content on my blog, www.tammyhartdesigns.com/blog

Right now I have a table that has a class that gives it it's width and the gradient background. The background image includes the blank line that goes up the side. Then I have three "cells". the top and bottom one have a class that defines the background image with the height of 1px. Then all of my content is in the middle. How can I do this without tables?

Considering the way your layout is, everything seems absolute, it would be simple to replace your table with a container then all the td with elements in the container.
So...

<table> = <div class="container">
&...
<tr><td> = <div class="header">
or... <div class="menu"> 
or... <div class="maincontent">

If you calculate the height and width of all your existing "table data" you could use css to create classes with corresponding sizes and position them absolutely (or relative to one another) within a container.

By the way, i really like your design. I think if you left it in tables it would be fine, but, of course, tables aren't for design. So, it's good to see you showing an interest in making the transition to table-less

well in my main site it's absolute, but it changes in the blog, it's all relative. The way I have it set up there is I start the table in the header and end it in the footer, so that I didn't have to code it into every single page that I wanted that to be on. Works nicely.

I know everyone says that tables aren't for design, but it works so nicely, I've never had any problems, but I've had problem after problem with divs.

Anyways, thanks for the pointers and the compliment.