@Simon - Here is a quickly revised schematic (sorry about the sloppiness) showing the entire circuit with crystal putting out a 33mHz frequency (30 sec period) in it's simplest form (plus a DSO image of the output of the 4541). I don't think there's an easier - or smaller package count - way to do this using discrete chips. If you wanted programmability, adding switches to the 4526 could allow you to change the period from 4 - 32 seconds in 2 second increments - and adding a switch to the 4541 could give you shorter periods, for example, 0.5 - 4 seconds in 0.25 second increments. Of course, as many have mentioned, with a few lines of code it's incredibly simple to do using an MCU - and more flexible in the long run - but sometimes the old-fashioned way is kind of fun
Edit: Just did a quick check and it seems the 74HCT161 (another divide-by-n 4 bit counter) is perhaps a better buy than the HEF4526 - it just depends on what package size you need and if you plan on using higher CMOS voltages.