Your opinion regarding my left nav?

Am hoping to get several opinions from a shopper's POV. After much thought and research, I long ago decided to list everything in my left nav...when someone comes to my site, they look quickly for exactly what they want, and I want whatever that is to be immediately apparent.

Here's my existing (non-OC) store which I'm planning to migrate in the next 30-60 days. You can see the problem:
http://www.catandcaboodle.com

I'm planning on using the Manufacturers drop-down box to replace the whole Artists and Brands section. That still leaves the long Cats by Product section, along with Holidays and Colors.

I'm planning on some consolidation, but not a whole lot. Looking for suggestions and opinions on whether this is too long, or I should leave it like it is.

I'd say if you can use the multi-tier of categories and put some of those categories into groups so that it's not so long, such as kitchenware, outdoors, misc (obviously add your own to this list )
I'm not a fan of the nav text increasing size as I roll over it either - although that's just a personal hate I've had for years on sites to be honest, watching text jump, and sometimes moving the whole nav around

Thanks, Jay. Your input is appreciated (as always).

(I like the "misc" category. Think I'll have to implement that one right away! )

Actually, the text is just bolded (I hate text moving the nav around, too). The one I'm working on now for the site does that as well. Because the text is only 8.5 point, I kind-of have to bold it on mouseover, but with the addition of a mouseover background this time, it doesn't actually look like the text is moving into a larger size. But I'll consider other options based on your pet peeve.

Any/all other opinions appreciated, too.

you might want to look at Q's Category Box Clone looks like it might help with your organization.

Yeah I understand it's just bolded, but when the text is teetering on being the full length of it's container at a regular weight, then goes bigger with the bold and moves everything about I just get annoyed If you want font legible, have it bold to begin with. Most people these days are smart enough to know a link brings up the nice hand icon. Colour rollovers are nice too, although I personally prefer the background of a link changing to make it clear which part is selected

Xsecrets wrote:you might want to look at Q's Category Box Clone looks like it might help with your organization.

Hey, thanks for this. I'll definitely look into this one.