Django 1.11 Unable to Connect SQL Server Express 2012 with django-pyodbc-azure

Question

FYI, I am just getting back into programming after not coding for a few years. My programming lingo might be off; so, I hope this does not off-put anyone in the community

Technologies I am using for this issue:

1. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
2. Python 3.5.3
3. Django 1.11.7
4. SQL Server Express 2012
5. django-pyodbc-azure 1.11.0.0

After reading suggestions online on what middleware connection I should use between my Django app and my SQL Server database, people were recommending django-pyodbc-azure with Django 1.11.

This is my python code (settings.py) that is supposed to connect to my database:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'NAME': 'INVENTORY.mdf',
        'ENGINE': 'sql_server.pyodbc',
        'USER': 'sqlserveradmin',
        'PASSWORD': '****',
        'OPTIONS' : {
            'driver' : 'SQL Server Native Client 11.0'
        },
    }
}

I did not include the host and port since I assumed that it would go to localhost:8000. Also, I put the database in the same location as the manage.py file:

mysite/
    ├──mysite/
    |   └──settings.py
    ├──manage.py
    └──INVENTORY.mdf

However, I keep getting the below message:

django.db.utils.OperationalError: ('08001', '[08001] [Microsoft][SQL Server 
Native Client 11.0]Named Pipes Provider: Could not open a connection to SQL 
Server [2].  (2) (SQLDriverConnect); [08001] [Microsoft][SQL Server Native 
Client 11.0]Login timeout expired (0); [08001] [Microsoft][SQL Server Native 
Client 11.0]Invalid connection string attribute (0); [08001] [Microsoft][SQL 
Server Native Client 11.0]A network-related or instance-specific error has 
occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. Server is not found 
or not accessible. Check if instance name is correct and if SQL Server is 
configured to allow remote connections. For more information see SQL Server 
Books Online. (2)')

I am thinking it has to do with the following:

1. My database still won't allow the connection
2. My settings.py code is missing something.

Any help would be greatly appreciated