Lydia Blinova was born in Almaty; her mother was a construction engineer, and her father was a lecturer of economics and construction at Kazakh Polytechnic Institute. Blinova graduated from Kazakh Polytechnic Institute in 1971. She was married to architect and artist Rustam Khalfin. Both Blinova and Khalfrin were followers of artist Vladimir Sterligov, whose approach they promoted in Almaty. In the 1970s and 1980s, Blinova organized unofficial apartment exhibitions of the Sterligov school  in Almaty. 

Blinova started her art career by working on wood sculptures, studying (like Saule Bultrikova) with sculptor Isaak Itkind. She later worked as a film stage-set designer with Russian film director Sergey Bodrov the elder (films “Put-upon Apostle,” 1983, and “Amateurs,” 1985) and directed her own puppet shows for children. She also designed jewelry and fabrics. 

Both Blinova and Khalfrin worked at Almatygiprogor, where in the early 1970s they participated in the design of the New Square (Novaya ploshchad) in Almaty within the workshop led by Yuri Tumanyan. The project was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1982 (Blinova was not mentioned among the authors).