Nina's Big Store is the product of the hugely successful Cats by Nina and Dogs by Nina lines which Nina and Skip Lyman started more than ten years ago. Skip and Nina are an artistic team as well as a marriage. They work together on many projects as well as individually. Nina does most all the animal drawing, Skip does most of the flowers and then Nina creates pictures combining the two. Ideas flow between them and evolve from both. Skip does the clay fabrication of pieces for reproduction, from Nina's drawings, and then Nina paints the images on them. It is rare when a couple can work and create together and it is part of what makes all the designs in Cats By Nina, Dogs by Nina, Horses By Nina and Nina's Ark so unique and special. They also receive a lot of help from their staff, which consists of five cats, an Aussie and a Corgi, three geese and two horses.

It is a marketplace for old and new Nina designs as well as a venue for those items Nina finds especially provocative in their design and content. It is a collection of animal related arts and crafts which we hope you find unique and endearing. Great care is given in choosing each item offered. There are, of course,the well crafted ceramic items, as well as offerings like the totes which were designed exclusively for Nina by a locally owned company and sewed here in Seattle with care by their seamstresses.

The collection will be continually changing with new items being added on a regular basis. We hope you enjoy the selection.

Cat Smith-Ward's photography is definitely extraordinary. Her previous work with pet rescue included taking countless photographs to assist with adoptions and fundraising. These images magically capture the unique personalities ofthe pets she helped find homes for. She and her husband, Pete, their Rottweiler "Chief", and a multitude of cats live in southeast Tennessee. Cat's favorite pastime is taking photographs of all her "furbabies".