How do I properly set up a django project in OSx?
You shouldn't do anything with paths at all, other than setting up a virtualenv. If you have pip, you can install virtualenv with sudo pip install virtualenv (and note that this is the last thing you should install with sudo pip; everything else after that should be inside an activated virtualenv).
I  have a background in programming with python but I really would like to start playing around with django but I have had difficulty setting up a project. 
I know that I have django installed but the command django-admin is not recognized. I believe this has something to do with the way my path is set up. I still feel clumsy about setting up correct paths, so a clear explanation of this would be greatly appreciated.
I also understand that it is advisable to set everything up within a virtual environment. I believe that I have pip installed which should enable virtualenv to be recognized, unfortunately the virtualenv command is also not recognized. I feel like I'm missing something very basic. Any help on setting up these basics would be very greatly appreciated.