I added a different texture pack to start from. Still not my own textures but it'll serve as a base point for a while as we slowly start making our own textures. Also added a way to easily add buttons to the UI. I went with a method proposed by Casey Muratori called "Immediate Mode GUI" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1qyvQsjK5Y). It was surprisingly easy to implement.
Blog