Category Archives: Photography

OOTD: One of a kind Italian Coat

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Have you ever been to a garage sale? I have, once! When I lived in Manhattan. It wasn’t even a garage sale per-say. I found a craigslist ad for a sale in Murray Hill where everything was $1. Maybe I didn’t know any better, maybe I am just that fearless, but that was one of the best sales I’ve ever been to! That’s where I scored my one of a kind hand made coat, which came from a flea market in Italy! I always wear my Grandma’s vintage pin on it as well (sorry you can’t see it in the picture, it’s covered by a scarf) but here is what it looks like:

 

This past Saturday was a super warm day for November in Minneapolis too, low 50s high 60s, just a great day to be out and about. Of course I had to wear my favorite boots (Sam gave them to me for Christmas a few years ago!), I wore an Old Navy knit dress underneath, which has a super cute pleated skirt – you can see it peaking from under the coat! My scarf came from Goodwill outlet in St.Paul, it has a paisley pattern, and always reminds me of the popular Russian motifs.

Of course it’s back to being cold here now, Saturday night it thunder stormed (yeah welcome to Minnesota in November) and Sunday morning it snowed!

I hope you had a great weekend! What has the weather been like in your neck of the woods? Also any thoughts and comments on the Outfit are appreciated!

Cheers,

Zhenya

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OOTD: A ZIG and a ZAG

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How do you combine a $4 Adrienne Vittadini  thrifted dress, $10 sale shoes, $6 clearance sweater, a unique handmade jewelry piece, and a $400 Ralph Lauren purse in one outfit?

Here is how:

Hubs and I took the most peaceful walk through the North Loop neighborhood, and then along the River Front here in Minneapolis. The last photo was taken under the Hennepin Ave bridge! I hope you had an awesome Sunday and enjoyed the warm weather in the Cities :)

Cheers,

Z

Being Zhenya Updates. AGAIN

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I know, you are all probably tired of my updates, but so many things have been going on in my life, that I can’t help, but share :)

After my very unfortunate incident with a manager from Sanctuary Salon Spa in Minneapolis, I was thrown into the pool of “I have to find a new hairstylist” people. See, I am not really a person who jumps from chair to chair. I like to find a good stylist and stick to them. Fortunately for me one of my friends recommended Ray, and needless to say – he was amazing! He works at Studio 54 which is right on Nicolette and 54th street! So if you are looking for a good stylist – definitely check him out!

Here is what my hair looks like now:

About a week and a half ago we went to Kielbasa Festival at Kramarczuk’s in North East Minneapolis. It’s right across the river next to St. Anthony Main.

 

I really wanted to see Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapels. We did get to see the show, but unfortunately they ran out of the signature beer mugs. Hopefully I’ll be able to score one in a local thrift store or something :)

 

And an awesome picture of us with a Matryoshka doll:

 

 

 

 

As some of you already know, I quit my Macy’s job, I don’t work at Clinique anymore. I am now a toddler teacher at the New Horizon Academy. I survived my first week at my new job, and to be honest this week is kind of easier, at least Monday went pretty well, and that’s like 50% of the week, right? :)

We also said good-bye to our MINI, a car that was in Sam’s family for the past 10 years. We traded it in for a Toyota Yaris, which is an automatic, while the MINI was a manual, and I can actually drive the new car! In fact, I am now the main driver in the family :) How exciting!

 

As one of my girlfriends referred to it – it’s a lipstick color car :)

 

 

I have also discovered a new hang out spot for my lunch breaks – DUNN Brother’s on the corner of 2nd and 3rd, near the Stone Arch Bridge. So if you want to stop by and say hi – I am usually there around 1.30 pm, reading my book :)

The sunsets have been gorgeous lately, I wish I could post a hundred pictures of each one, but we’ll keep it simple:

 

I know I haven’t blogged a whole lot lately, new job, transitioning from retail back to childcare and all that, but I am hoping to jump back on the regular blogging train, so that I can entertain you with more and more exciting stories and DIYs from Minneapolis.

Lots of love,

xo,

Z

The September Issue

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“Vogue came. It’s pretty big” – that’s the text I got from my husband as I was leaving work today. I’ve been waiting for this issue since the last one came! I am serious! I love the September Issue.

But before we look through it together, I want to share a video with you, it’s 100% true, and I encourage you to watch it, and never ever act like this in a cosmetics department!

And now on to the Vogue:

Look how huge it is, compared to the game case:

 

The cover unfolded, as it often does, and revealed those cool covers/shots from December 1892 andNovember 1949. Yes, Vogue is 120 years old! I quickly cut those out, and am planning on framing them ASAP!

 

Couldn’t ignore this Mila Kunis ad for Dior! Yes, that’s how you become an A list actress!

 

This Dolce & Gabbana ad is so Russian to me:

 

Love the new O.P.I nail polish collection,look at how vibrant the colors are. I also had a ball reading the names! Can I please work as the nail polish name creator?

 

This issue was everything that I expected it to be and more! I am also excited and looking forward to trying this sample of L’Oreal’s BB cream

 

And shopping at Target when these new collections come around:

 

And finally, to top it all off, I wore a $140 skirt to work today, that cost me only $11.50! Yes, thrifting pays off my friends :)

 

What caught your eye in the September issue?

xo,

Z

Last Friday Night: Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

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Yes, I finally did it, I dragged my husband out to the Sculpture Garden, which is “ahem” a 10 minute walk from our house, and also a place where we got married almost a year ago!

I mean it never gets old, so here are a few shots:

My legs are almost see-through – I guess I’ve over worked out :) hmmm But hey I am wearing a thrifted Saks Fifth Avenue Shirt, so that’s legit!

 

Can you find the fish?

This never gets old (maybe because that’s the only thing in Minneapolis to look at?) Also, sorry random girls, you are now famous on my blog :)

 

I told you taking pictures of the skyline never gets old :)

Plants are afraid of the dark too, they need a night light!

Lights will guide you… if not home, then well somewhere :)

One more fore the cheap seats in the back!

My favorite quote of them all!

Hope you had fun bumming around The Sculpture Garden with me! How was your weekend? What did you do? Where did you go? Who did you see?

Xo,

Z

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOTD and why sometimes I don’t want to go home

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It was boring at work… Wait, let’s put it this way – there were no customers, and I have already organized all the drawers… Anyways, my coworker from MAC decided to do my make-up. The rules were simple – she could pick whatever she wanted and I couldn’t see what it looked like until she was done. Easy peasy :) Here is what we ended up with:

Today after work I didn’t want to go straight back to the apartment. Even though I got done at 8, it’s something about not wanting to go to the place which you spent the whole morning cleaning (and by cleaning I mean some serious cleaning – you could eat off of the kitchen floor!) in fear of finding it all trashed by your own husband. Anyways, I went to Loring Park instead, to finish my book (How did you get this number?) and watch the bunnies (I only have a mild obsession with those).

And in spite of today being the hottest day of the summer so far (the heat advisory was from 1pm-8pm) I really enjoyed my time. In times like this I remember how important it is to find alone time, to be a little selfish and do what you feel like doing, not what others want you to do. It’s times like this that people call – stop and smell the roses (or the flowers, whatever the expression is), but you get what I mean.

So here it is – here is a small snapshot of my moment today:

XO,

Z

PS. Did  you find the rainbow?

Art-A-Whirl 2012, Minneapolis, MN

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I know you all probably thing that all I do over the weekends is go to different art exhibitions and fairs, well I have been for the past 3 Sundays, simply because I’ve been getting Sundays off at work!

Today’s post is going to be about Art-A-Whirl, that takes place every year in North East Minneapolis. I’ve never been to that part of town before (shame on me I know!) It’s a pretty awesome area that became a home to a lot of immigrants from Poland and Germany. That’s where the famous polish store Kramarczuk’s is located! I’ve been to the store, no further!

There are also a couple Russian Orthodox churches I believe, but since I am not orthodox, I wasn’t really interested in going there. Maybe some other time.

Since Art-A-Whirl doesn’t take place in one building, we drove around quiet a lot that day! I am going to post pictures in chronological order, as we went from building to building!

But we’ll start with a map:

If you speak Russian, you’ll find the name of this band just as funny, as I did!

Jarmo Koponen

Randy Walker 

Ice globes for your garden

Emily Dyer 

Lucy Grantz 

Michael Birawer

(Sam and I actually bought a poster of one of his paintings)

Brickmania

I just thought this was a very cool desk :)

Those huge lego blocks were actually for sale! Any takers?

I hope you enjoyed our little trip, here is a video re-cap of the events. I also apologize for not mentioning the names of all artists, there were so many, I couldn’t possibly remember them all! But if you know that the above pics show your work, please leave me a comment and I’ll correct that!

Have a great day everyone!

xo,

Z

Easter the Hutsons’ way!

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Yay for Easter and holidays and a day off :) Anyways I am going to start today’s post with my outfit of the day! The skirt was an amazing $12 find from Old Navy! The sheer blouse is something I got at Ragstock last week and the under shirt is something I’ve had for years! The shoes are pretty old too, I’ve had them since Russia!

I also made a traditional Russian Easter cake called “Kulich” – just some raisins and icing, and it turned out really good! I honestly didn’t expect that at all :) Hehe

Once we got to my in-laws house, Sandra surprised me with spicy Korean carrots (those are super popular in Russia!)

While waiting for dinner, we entertained ourselves by adding on to the diorama!

Can you guess what we’ve added? Heh!

And after dinner we were all enjoying the view and taking pictures. Sam and I don’t have a lot of pictures together, so we finally took one!

And I took one with my mother-in-law as well :) How gorgeous are we?

And finally, I just wanted to share some of the beautiful scenery with you, add on bird sounds and a little breeze and you get our Easter Day!

Happy Easter everyone!

xoxo

Zhenya

My Wedding DIYs

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This will probably be the last post about my wedding. And I am sure a lot of you will let out a sigh of relief, because “How much longer do we have to sit here and listen to you blabbering?”

Anyways, this is going to be a tip that I read in “Priceless Weddings Under $5,000″. And the tip is going to be about flowers!

I know every bride wants her wedding to be a place where flowers come to die. As sarcastic as I may sound now, this was a true fact about me as well. I wanted flowers, loads of them, and I knew I couldn’t afford to pay more than $200 dollars for them. So off to Costco I went. (If there is a Sam’s Club in your area that works too) Now, Sam and I don’t have membership, but his parents do, so we convinced his mom to take us a couple weeks before the wedding, so that we could buy some food and also scout for the flowers. In Minnesota Costco carries bunches of roses (24 count) for $16.99. Needless to say I got the woman’s phone number (because there is a separate person who is in charge of the flowers!) and called her a week before the wedding to place an order for 7 bunches of red roses. We came to pick them up on Saturday morning, and I also got a bunch of ivory ones.  So there we go 8 x 16.99 plus tax came around to about – $140! And there we go – I didn’t go over budget or anything. Now I made my own bouquet, and the center pieces. Here are some pics of what I managed to put together the night before the wedding:

Now for the center pieces:

I got the smaller bowl-like vases at my favorite Salvation Army (Yes, the one in Warehouse District) and they were all either 99 cents or 50 cents. The vase fillers came from Family Dollar – clear ones were 60 cents a bag and red ones were a dollar a bag – I got 2 bags of each. Ribbon cots 50 cents and came from Michael’s, I used 2 spools.

Now about the pearly while inserts I used in the girls’ bouquets. I made them all by myself. Here is what you need:

1. Beads – I used Crystazzi from Michael’s – there is a ton in the pack for only $3.99 and I knew I would use them for my future craft projects.

2. Then I used floral wire in silver – I think it was $1.99 from Michael’s

3. All you got to do is cut the wire into pieces (about 10-12 inches long – or depending on the hight of your bouquet), pull it through the bead and wrap it around a few times. Now the wire will either give you blisters, or you are gonna end up scratching yourself a few times. So I suggest either truing to be very careful, or making these a week before the wedding – so that your hands have time to heal! And you are done!

Now for the bouquets I also used floral tape (3 spools for $1.99 and wide ribbon – 2 spools – one red and one ivory – $2.99 and pins – the ones I am now reusing in my sewing projects :) )

So here you have it – I have told you all about my DIYs for the wedding. I can honestly say that from all the wedding experience that I had, I can’t help but agree with my friend Bri – Always, I repeat ALWAYS, hire a good photographer!