Screwed up 1st starter need advice

After reading so much about needing to use starters I decided to set one up last night. I set it up in a growler w/ a blowoff tube going into another growler filled w/ sanitizer. My seal on the hose was not as airtight as I had thought and came out this am to beer all over the shelf I had it on. I lost enough wort so I switched to an airlock, and while switching it didn't smell like anything had gone bad, just smelled like yeasty beer. Now I dont know whether or not to use it for todays brew. I dont have anymore and can't get to the lhbs. Do I need to scrap todays brew?

Sidenote, beersmith and mrmalty told me to make a 3 qt starter. From what I could see, the general consensus is 1/2 C DME per 1/2 qt water. Now does a 3 qt starter mean 3 qts of water plus the DME or is that supposed to be 3 qts of total starter (water and DME) Thanks

John Palmer states using a pint (470 milliliters) which is just under 1/2 quart water to 1/2 cup dry malt extract.
A three quart starter should be 3 quarts total product.
I'd use the starter you made, it's probably going to be fine.

I would use it since it was obviously active & you know the yeast is good. If you weren't using a stir plate, a lot of that yeast probably dropped to the bottom of the growler anyway, so I'm guessing you didn't lose much yeast, if any.

One other note...I've read that you don't want to use a blowoff tube or airlock on starters because the yeast need oxygen to get going. Airlocks keep the oxygen out. I use a piece of sanitized foil over the opening of my flask/growler. Using a bigger flask also gives you more room so you won't end up with a mess. I just bought a second one because I found out my growlers weren't big enough on my last brew.

Awesome. Thank u guys for the advice. I'm midmash now so let's hope all is well

Also, you want that ratio after the boil, not before. I boil off about 300 ml in 15 minutes. So for an example, last night I made a 1.2L starter. I boiled 1500 ml with 120g of DME. Finished up around 1200ml.